Next Tuesday,

hundreds of neighborhood children will dress up as their favorite animated

characters, or something a little spooky or as something they would like

to be in the future.

They will go

door to door, begging for candy and they will return home with a bag full

of sweets that will last them until election day, if they are lucky. It

is a tradition that has gone on for many years and will continue to do

so for many more, unless certain groups exert enough influence or employ

enough scare tactics to stop it all together.

Some people

would have you believe that Halloween is a day of evil and that those

who participate are going to a place much warmer and more dangerous than

Miami. I think they are wrong.

Halloween is

not evil because the children who trick or treat are not evil. They are

children looking to score candy like the rest of their friends. They do

not view it as a pagan holiday, nor do they view it as a day to worship

the devil and perform animal sacrifices. That is Thanksgiving. They view

it as an orange-and-black-colored type of Christmas, where they receive

candy instead of toys.

People cite

ancient history as an evil origin of this holiday. The Celts of the ninth

century would dress up in scary costumes Oct. 31, called Samhain, to scare

off the souls of those who had died in the past year and would be trying

to inhabit the bodies of the living. It is kind of spooky but it was just

a superstition, like having a black cat cross your path or walking under

a ladder. It has only as much credence as you give it.

Nov. 1 also

marked the end of the season of the sun for the Celts, meaning the end

of the harvest season. The sun would move farther from the earth for awhile,

making the world as they knew it darker and colder. Other traditions around

that time included leaving out bowls of nuts and fruits to "appease"

the wandering souls of Samhain. There is nothing too creepy about nuts

and berries or even spooks that would be appeased by them.

Early Christians

also were involved in traditions around this time. They went "souling"

village to village, begging for soul cakes. The more cakes given by people,

the more prayers for their departed loved ones they would receive. This

is allegedly one of the origins of trick or treating.

If you cite

these "dark" origins as a reason not to let children trick or

treat or celebrate Halloween, you are being ruled by archaic, superstitious

history. The Samhain traditions were 1,200 years ago and the world has

changed a bit since then. For one thing, we now know that the world isn't

flat and that the sun doesn't revolve around us.

The other argument

I hear every year is that it just isn't safe for children to trick or

treat... that there are evil, satanic people out there looking to run

amok and ruin the holiday.

First off,

no child should be trick or treating alone. If they are supervised by

at least one parent or adolescent, they are safe. Secondly, scary people

who want to do harm to children have always existed. They didn't start

coming around just last year and they don't just strike on Halloween.

If you follow normal safety procedures, you should be fine.

I've also heard

the razor blade in the candy story since I went trick or treating, but

it never happened in my town or to anybody I knew. In fact, I've only

heard it passed around from other people who knew a friend of as cousin

that it happened to, like a scary story or an urban legend. It may have

happened and it may still, but that is why parents should be parents and

examine their children's haul (grabbing the stuff they like first) and

discarding food that isn't wrapped or looks suspicious.

I am just sick

of the holiday being ruined by this overly sensitive, overly protective

attitude. Children shouldn't have to go trick or treating in a mall several

days before Halloween. They shouldn't go out in broad daylight on the

holiday either. They should be able to dress up like Pikachu, or a ghost,

or a princess or Jar Jar Binks and they shouldn't be made to feel like

they are evil if they do.

They should be able to see all their friends and look

at their costumes and giggle into the night and feel like they have the

run of the neighborhood and that all is right with the world. Getting

candy for free is every child's dream and it gets destroyed by people

pushing an agenda.

I'm not against fall festivals that offer alternative

celebrations to Halloween. It's a fun way to spend a day and people are

free to believe what they want to believe and to do as they choose. God

Bless America. But think before you subject your children, who must do

as you choose, to a nontraditional Halloween.

Kids that can go trick or treating will ring your bell

next Tuesday and if your kids are inside looking out, they will see something

more scary. Namely, what they're missing.

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